the Renaissance Housewife
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Saving >
      • Kitchen >
        • Food >
          • Recipes
      • Bath & Laundry
      • Medicine Cabinet
      • Office
      • Electricity
      • Gardening
      • Foraging
      • Animals
      • Weekly F. A.'s
      • Printables & Downloads
    • Earning
    • Investing
  • Books
  • About
    • RH Recommends
    • Newsletter & Updates
    • Travel
    • Beta Readers
    • Legal Stuff

ROI of Line Drying Clothes

6/17/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Today I'm going to calculate the ROI and hourly wage of using a clothesline to dry clothes. 

Potential Savings

Each clothes dryer is different, so your energy savings will probably differ from mine. In addition, the price of electricity and propane also goes up and down and differs according to region, so do your own calculations for "official" savings of line-drying as opposed to using a clothes dryer.

Here is a good online calculator to help you figure out how much money you spend per load of machine-dried clothing.

For simplicity's sake, I'm going to say that we save $0.50 per load of laundry that gets line-dried. Your yearly savings will depend on how many loads you do per week. On average, Hubs and I do about two loads of laundry every week.

1 load/wk: $0.50 ($26.00/yr)
2 loads: $1.00 ($52.00)
3 loads: $1.50 ($78.00)
4 loads: $2.00 ($104.00)
5 loads: $2.50 ($130.00)
6 loads: $3.00 ($156.00)
7 loads: $3.50 ($182.00)
8 loads: $4.00 ($208.00)
9 loads: $4.50 ($234.00)
10 loads: $5.00 ($260.00)

Hourly Wage

Obviously, the time it takes to hang out a load of pants will be much less than a load of socks. So, let's do some different calculations. I'm going to guess at how long each type of load takes to hang out.

Load of pants: $0.50 x 12 (5 minute sessions) = $6.00/hr.
Load of shirts: $0.50 x 6 (10 minute sessions) = $3.00/hr.
Load of socks & underwear: $0.50 x 3 (20 minute sessions) = $1.50/hr.


Hmm... for the most part, this activity falls below my coverline $4.00/hr. "housewife wage". That means that I'm only going to do it when I have the time, or when it's convenient (for example, when it is not raining). I know some people who hang laundry outside during the winter, but keep in mind that because of the cold, it will take even longer. Which means even less than $3.00 per hour. There's no way I'm willing to freeze for that hourly wage. So my personal yearly savings (at two loads per week) is probably less than $25.00 per year. This could be doubled if I line dried indoors, but I'm not that ambitious for a savings of only $4.00 per month.

Return On Investment

If you want to start line drying, all you will need to buy is a clothesline and clothespins. Many people already have a clothesline in their backyard, but those who don't can hang a clothesline on their porch or even indoors. I know a girl who ran a clothesline indoors almost the entire length of her double-wide trailer. The line and clothespins will last for years if you're careful, but do eventually wear out. My ROI, therefore, will be for six loads per week, over the course of five years (estimated life of the clothespins & rope).

Investment: 100 pk. of clothespins ($2.00) + clothesline rope ($10.00) = $12.00

Return: $156 per year x 5 years = $780.00

ROI: 6500%

Conclusion

​I think line drying is great for a sunny, summer day. The good news is that line drying requires no special skill. Any eight-year-old child can hang laundry. Line drying is also better for your clothes and will help them last longer.

Line drying is also a very cheap way to save a lot of money. With a $12.00 investment, you have the potential to save hundreds of dollars.

That being said, there are probably better ways to save money if you are short on time. 

Til next time,
-Bethany
0 Comments

How to Make Laundry Detergent

2/20/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
Hello folks! I know about every other homemaking blog out there has a laundry detergent tutorial, but I thought I'd do my own anyway. It is so cheap and easy to make, and for the two of us, a five-gallon pail lasts a LONG time.

Homemade Laundry Soap

½ cup borax
1 cup washing soda
5-6 oz. soap, grated
3 gallons water
5-gallon bucket with a lid

Instructions:
1. Measure out the borax and washing soda. I would recommend storing these items in a glass or otherwise air-tight container, because in a humid area it might cake up, dry out and be impossible to measure.

2. Grate the soap. A lot of recipes call for the use of Fels-Naptha, which is a wonderful soap. However, Hubs and I don't need stain-removing power in our laundry soap (I just use a spray-on stain remover when necessary), and $3 per bar makes it less frugal than just using regular soap. In the picture below, I used free hotel soap and some homemade soap chunks. I used a Kitchen Aid grating attachment to grate the soap. This is a LOT easier than making soap shavings by hand, and a lot faster, too.
Picture
3. Add 1 quart of water to the soap, and bring to a boil. This will dissolve the soap shavings.
Picture
Make sure you're using a large pot... otherwise it might boil over!
Picture
4. Put the rest of the water in your five-gallon bucket. At this point, most recipes tell you to put the borax, washing soda and soap water in the bucket, and stir to dissolve the soda and borax. Because my soda was clumpy (thanks, humidity), I thought it would be better to dissolve it in the hot, soapy water, and THEN pour everything into the bucket.
Picture
6. Pour everything into the five-gallon bucket, and mix well.
Picture
I chose to top off the bucket with water, in order to get more soap out of the recipe.

7. Let the soap sit overnight before using. The next morning, it should have a gel-like consistency. Mine usually turns out a little watery (probably because I use normal soap, and/or add more water), but still works great. I keep a normal laundry detergent cap in the bucket for measuring. For large loads I use two caps-full, and for small loads I only use one cap-full.
Picture
Note: In the past, I've tried adding essential oils to the soap in order to make our clothes smell like lavender/orange/etc. While the oils make the soap smell nice, unfortunately the scent doesn't transfer to our clothes. Because of this, I don't bother adding essential oils to my laundry soap.

Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend!
-Bethany
2 Comments

How to Line Dry on a Rainy Day

4/9/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
As I write this, it's cold and dripping wet outside. If you're doing laundry, it's a good excuse to use the dryer, right? Not so fast! There are still ways to get by without a dryer.

One lady I know hangs clothes on the line all winter. She has a line strung on her front porch as well, which gets used when it's raining. I'm not hard-core enough to hang wet laundry outside in the dead of winter, but there are other options.

1. Use a wooden drying rack. These are great but they don't hold a lot, tip over easily (in my experience) and aren't cheap.

2. String up a line indoors. I know of one girl who strung a line right through the middle of her double wide like a big party banner!

3. Put an extra shower curtain rod in your shower. Put clothing on a hanger and hang it on the extra shower rod. This is how I dry indoors. It works well if I don't have too much laundry and if neither of us are taking a shower during that time.

4. Hang a homemade drying rack on the ceiling and dry clothing on hangers. I got this idea from a really cool mom (you know who you are!) and I think it is the best of all options. After the clothes dry, you don't even have to hang them up- just move the (plastic) hangers into the closet. Unlike the standing drying racks, you can dry a LOT more clothes, and you don't have to coordinate clothes drying with shower time. Nor do you have to handle wet clothes in the dead of winter or run a huge underwear-ridden party banner through the largest room in your house. 

This hanging rack was made from the sides of an old crib. 
Picture
According to MomOnTimeOut, a load of laundry can cost $0.44- $1.32. Let's say it costs $0.75 to be fair. I only do about two loads per week, but even so I'm saving $1.50 per week, equal to $78 per year. With my two loads of big-people clothes and some socks and underwear, it probably takes me 5-10 minutes to hang the laundry each week. Not a big hassle. If you were doing loads and loads of infant clothes it might not be worth it. But then again, if you use #4, you're saving the time it takes to hang up all of the clothes as well. Food for thought.

Do you line-dry indoors? What's your laundry secret? 

0 Comments
    Picture

    Bethany

    Housewife, happy wife, and mama to one. :)

    Picture

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food
    How to Eat for $10.00
    ​per Week

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning
    A Weekly Menu to Save
    Time & Money
    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to
    Frugal Fruits and Vegetables

    No Garden? No Problem!

    Watch Meals From the Bunker:

    Picture

    Check out my Youtube Channel!

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    Baby Girl's Birth Story
    Picture
    8 Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Christmas
    Cleaning
    Clothing
    Cooking
    Couponing
    Education
    Ego
    Electricity
    Farmers Market
    Finance
    Foraging
    Frugal
    Frugal Accomplishments
    Frugality
    Garage Sales
    Gardening
    Gifts
    Grocery Budget
    Grocery Shopping
    Herbs
    History
    Hobby Farm
    Home Based Business
    Home-based Business
    Home Decorating
    Housekeeping
    Industry
    Languages
    Laundry
    Marriage
    Meal Planning
    Medicine
    Minimalist
    Network Marketing
    Organization
    Plants
    Product Reviews
    Quotes
    Recipes
    ROI
    Rv
    Sewing
    Simplicity
    Spanish
    Spending Report
    Travel

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Full Disclosure & Disclaimer

    Picture
    Picture
    I get cash back for many online purchases including wedding gifts and Ebay stuff!

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from dasWebweib, amanessinger, thewritingreader, diakosmein